Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Abraham then took a hatchet in his hand, and broke all his father's
gods, and when he had done breaking them he placed the hatchet in the
hand of the biggest god among them all, and he went out. Terah, having
heard the crash of the hatchet on the stone, ran to the room of the
idols, and he reached it at the moment when Abraham was leaving it, and
when he saw what had happened, he hastened after Abraham, and he said
to him, "What is this mischief thou hast done to my gods?" Abraham
answered: "I set savory meat before them, and when I came nigh unto
them, that they might eat, they all stretched out their hands to take
of the meat, before the big one had put forth his hand to eat. This
one, enraged against them on account of their behavior, took the
hatchet and broke them all, and, behold, the hatchet is yet in his
hands, as thou mayest see."
Then Terah turned in wrath upon Abraham, and he said: "Thou speakest
lies unto me! Is there spirit, soul, or power in these gods to do all
thou hast told me? Are they not wood and stone? and have I not myself
made them? It is thou that didst place the hatchet in the hand of the
big god, and thou sayest he smote them all." Abraham answered his
father, and said: "How, then, canst thou serve these idols in whom
there is no power to do anything? Can these idols in which thou
trustest deliver thee? Can they hear thy prayers when thou callest upon
them?" After having spoken these and similar words, admonishing his
father to mend his ways and refrain from worshipping idols, he leapt up
before Terah, took the hatchet from the big idol, broke it therewith,
and ran away.
Terah hastened to Nimrod, bowed down before him, and besought him to
hear his story, about his son who had been born to him fifty years
back, and how he had done to his gods, and how he had spoken. "Now,
therefore, my lord and king," he said, "send for him that he may come
before thee, and do thou judge him according to the law, that we may be
delivered from his evil." When Abraham was brought before the king, he
told him the same story as he had told Terah, about the big god who
broke the smaller ones, but the king replied, "Idols do neither speak,
nor eat, nor move." Then Abraham reproached him for worshipping gods
that can do nothing, and admonished him to serve the God of the
universe. His last words were, "If thy wicked heart will not hearken to
my words, to cause thee to forsake thy evil ways and serve the Eternal
God, then wilt thou die in shame in the latter days, thou, thy people,
and all that are connected with thee, who hear thy words, and walk in
thy evil ways."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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